A country that has only 20 percent of the population of Greece and virtually no military forces cannot reasonably be considered a security concern.

While Bulgaria aims to have all 28 EU countries in Sofia in May to give a boost to EU accession of the Western Balkans, some EU countries want to make sure their reservations about Kosovo are noted.

Bulgaria's prime minister Boyko Borisov described a meeting at the Black Sea resort of Varna between the presidents of Turkey, the EU council, and the European commission as "charged with great tension." Disputes remain far from resolved.

Bosnia-Herzegovina needs a memorial to the 100,000 dead in the 1992 war, if it is to move on.

The EU got "limited" effect for the €9bn it spent trying to modernise Turkey in recent years, auditors have said. Turkey has been "backsliding" on reforms since 2013 due to "lack of political will", the European Court of Auditors found.

The EU-Ukraine association deal - probably the most explosive EU deal with a third country in history - was long on open markets and trade barriers, but quiet on welfare states, poverty and inequality: all of which feed populism.

After the European Commission presented its Western Balkans strategy last week, with a view of possibly integrating the region by 2025, some EU ministers were less enthusiastic after their first discussion of the new policy.

EU powers and the US have welcomed Kosovo's decision to end its attempt to overturn a war crimes tribunal.

The Strasbourg-based human rights watchdog, the Council of Europe, is heading to Ankara next week. The trip follows new plans by Ankara to meet EU demands for reforms in areas like anti-terror legislation.

The European Commission is rarely praised for bold action these days - but the EU Strategy for the Western Balkans deserves applause.

EU commission changed key policy document after Spanish objections, despite Kosovo's warning of "tensions".

Commission head told Croatia's Andrei Plenkovic that Slovenia border dispute could wreck EU aspirations of Balkan neighbours.

EU commission head Juncker planning a peregrination of Western Balkans capitals amid EU efforts to play geopolitics with Russia and China.

Faruk Kaymakci, Turkey's ambassador to the EU, says Ankara is ready to reform its anti-terror laws and meet all outstanding benchmarks so that Turks can travel freely to EU member states without visas.